''Deathbird Stories: A Pantheon of Modern Gods'' is a 1975 collection of
short stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...
by American author
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...
, written over a period of ten years; the stories address the theme of modern-day "deities" that have replaced the older, more traditional ones. The collection, with its
satiric
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or ...
al,
skeptical
Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...
tone, is widely considered one of Ellison's best. The book includes a 1973 introduction and a stern ''
caveat lector
''Caveat emptor'' (; from ''caveat'', "may he/she beware", a subjunctive form of ''cavēre'', "to beware" + ''ēmptor'', "buyer") is Latin for "Let the buyer beware". It has become a proverb in English. Generally, ''caveat emptor'' is the contrac ...
The Deathbird
"The Deathbird" is a novelette by American writer Harlan Ellison. It won the 1974 Hugo Award for Best NoveletteLeo and Diane Dillon
Leo Dillon (March 2, 1933 – May 26, 2012) and Diane Dillon (''née'' Sorber; born March 13, 1933) were American illustrators of children's books and adult paperback book and magazine covers. One obituary of Leo called the work of the hu ...
.
Contents
It contains the following stories (along with an introduction):
* "Introduction: Oblations at Alien Altars"
* " The Whimper of Whipped Dogs"
** Inspired by the
Kitty Genovese
In the early hours of March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese, a 28-year-old bartender, was raped and stabbed outside the apartment building where she lived in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens in New York City, New York, United States. Two weeks ...
murder.
* "Along the Scenic Route"
* "On the Downhill Side"
* "O Ye of Little Faith"
* "Neon"
* "Basilisk"
* "Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes"
* "Corpse"
* "Shattered Like a Glass Goblin"
* "Delusion for a Dragon Slayer"
* "The Face of Helene Bournouw"
* "Bleeding Stones"
* "At the Mouse Circus"
* "The Place with No Name"
* "Paingod"
* "Ernest and the Machine God"
* "Rock God"
* " Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W"
* "
The Deathbird
"The Deathbird" is a novelette by American writer Harlan Ellison. It won the 1974 Hugo Award for Best Novelette
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reviewer Gerald Jonas found that the stories "offer a mixture of overheated Hype and genuine concern for the human condition," noting that on occasion Ellison "raises excess and pretension to a form of art." In 1993, the ''Times'' described a reissue of the collection as "Fantasy at its most bizarre and unsettling." Writing in ''Galaxy'',
Spider Robinson
Spider Robinson (born November 24, 1948) is an American-born Canadian science fiction author. He has won a number of awards for his hard science fiction and humorous stories, including the Hugo Award 1977 and 1983, and another Hugo with his co-a ...
reviewed the collection favorably, despite faulting Ellison's "unrelieved pessimism."
One academic biography describes ''Deathbird Stories'' as "a kind of spiritual autobiography" and notes that Ellison's modern gods "gain their influence not from revelatory or charismatic social movements but from the driving anxieties of mid-twentieth century American culture."Gary K. Wolfe and Ellen Weil, ''Harlan Ellison: the edge of forever'', Ohio State University Press, 2002, p.157-58